percyjacksonfanfictionfandomcom-20200216-history
Chai Latte
Chapters 10-13 in Wake Up and Smell the Coffee Chapter 10 - Preparing for Battle Recognition flooded my slow mind, and I bowed my head. “Hello, Lady Hestia.” Hestia nodded. “Hello.” The memory of first talking to this goddess of home filled my mind. It was a couple weeks after my arrival at camp. I had been walking alone to the Athena cabin when I had spotted a small girl tending the brazen in the center of the courtyard. I had seen her once or twice before, and her norm of being alone bothered me. Wanting to help, I had walked up to her, asking her name. It was a shock, however, when her identity as a goddess was revealed. “Why are you here?” I asked, puzzled. Her fiery eyes spread a comforting warmth through me. “I am here to assist you. I could not stand by and let Boreas turn you into popsicles.” Seth gave a shrug, as if he was agreeing gratefully. Rebecca piped up, “Well, thank you. We really appreciate it.” “Yeah,” echoed Natalie and Emma. “Yeah. Really. We would have been goners. Thank you so much,” I added. Hestia looked over all of us, assessing us five demigods. “It appears you still have much work to do. Therefore, I shall take my leave. Remember, however, that the home is a place of comfort, the hearth a place of warmth, and that my touch looks upon you with favor.” With that, the goddess erupted once more into flame. When the light faded, and my eyes adjusted, she was gone. The room seemed colder without her warming presence; it lacked comfort. We, however, didn’t need to worry about staying in here too much longer. “Wait,” said Natalie as if remembering something. “Kassi, what did Boreas want?” “Oh, right,” I replied, ringing out my hair, doing my best to get rid of the strangely warm water. I had forgotten about his talk with me. Now, however, it was just as unsettling. “Umm. I’m not really sure. He seemed,” I paused, searching for the right word, “crazy. Yeah. Crazy. He started going on about my birth, questioning me, asking how I survived.” “What does he mean?” asked Rebecca. “I don’t know!” It bothered me to think that there was more of my life that I wasn’t aware of. I mean, it was bad enough when I found out that I was a demigod. What else could there be? Or was Boreas lying? “I have no idea what he’s talking about. He said something about Athena, when I was born, Zephyr, and then blowing me away. Gah! I’m so confused.” Natalie looked at me, surprised. “Well,” she finally said, “''I'' don’t have anything. I don’t think anyone does.” “Alright. Let’s go,” said Seth after an awkward silence, eager for action as always. “We can’t just run out of here,” said Rebecca. “We have to figure out how to shut down Biggby and get past the storm spirits. Don’t we need a plan or something?” My hand paused on the doorknob, for I had just been ready to open it when hearing Rebecca’s words. Normally, I loved plans. I made plans all the time! For everything I did, I had to sketch it out in my mind, figure out how everything was going to play out. Sometimes, however, plans can just be a hassle and annoying; this was one of those times. I looked at Seth and could tell that he felt the same way; he wanted action, and, right now, strangely, I did too. “Sometimes,” I said, turning the knob, “the best plan is not having one.” I opened the door and walked into the hospital-like hallway. Glancing both ways, I started walking to my left, choosing at random. Startled, my friends filed out after me. “Kassi,” Natalie called softly, for fear of being heard. “What are you doing?!” “Right now? I’m trying to find our weapons. Later?” I flicked my hand. “Who knows? We’ll make it up as we go.” By this time, she had caught up to me. I glanced sideways at her, gauging her reaction. She thought about it for a minute and then shrugged. I smiled; I knew this would happen. Right now, Natalie wanted action as much as I did. “Wait,” said Rebecca, supplying a voice of reason. “We can’t just walk into something we don’t know.” “Again,” I replied, “we’ll make it up as we go. I don’t have the patience to figure this all out.” “But..” “No matter what you say I’m not going to change my mind. I want to get this over with.” She finally consented just as we were getting near Boreas’ office. Thus far, there had been no doors in the hallway. Here, however, there were tons. “Just start opening them, but ignore Boreas’,” I said, pointing to the heavy mahogany door in front of us. “Huh,” said Emma, staring out of a crack in between some curtains. “I thought it was dark when we came here.” “Uhh. It was,” I responded, perplexed. “Why?” “It’s light now” she said, pointing outside. Natalie strode up to the curtains, pulling them aside to reveal to world outside. Emma was right; it looked to be towards the evening. “I...what?” commented Natalie. “Even with everything that has happened, it can’t be this late. It should be early or mid morning. This doesn’t make sense.” I was stunned. Worried, I wandered a few steps back down the hallway where I had seen a calendar. It was one of those day-by-day ones. Huge in size, it had notes scribbled all over it. As I looked at it now, the notes didn’t bother me. I was more enthralled and dismayed by the date. It was three days since we came upon Biggby. Three days! “Guys,” I said. “Not good. We must have been in that ice for three days, yet, it didn’t feel like it. Oh gosh. Let’s hurry and get this over with.” I opened the first door I saw, only to find a small closet. The next two were offices. I quickly peeked in both, scanning for anything of importance, thinking that, perhaps, something would help us out. Alas, I found nothing. Just as I was closing a drawer in the second one, Seth called, “Hey, guys. Found em’” I hurried outside to find everyone else entering a room. I, too, entered and saw the small room lined with tables. On the far one, amidst copiers, faxes, and drachmas, were our weapons and packs. The others were all checking their supplies, checking nectar levels, making sure that our money was present, ensuring that, when we needed something, it would be there. I also first picked up my pack, checking to see that nothing had been disturbed. All seemed fine. The pack was good, no rips or tears; everything looked to be in order. I swung it on my back; my friends had already moved on to their weapons. Natalie was buckling on Scarlet, that old, famed blade from Diomedes. Rebecca was testing her bow, making sure that the string was taut and perfect. Emma clipped on her blade, making sure that it wasn’t harmed. Seth was holding his sword, a familiar fire in his eyes. He was ready for this fight, waiting for it, excited for it. As I picked up Hesperus, feeling its worn grip, I felt the same way. I changed the shield to the charm, opting to keep the sword out, ready for a fight. Chapter 11 - Dust In that moment, the stars aligned for us. For once, the gods were smiling upon me. Even with everything at stake, even with no plan, just then, for that one moment, it all worked out. Now, who’s to say that it won’t all fall apart later? It just might. Right then, however, all was perfect. The sly voices of the four wind spirits touched upon our ears. We froze, fearing the worst, that they had heard us. Their voices, however, faded as they stopped short of the room we were in and entered one before it, closing the door behind them. We carefully exited our room, staring at the doors near us. I wasn’t sure which one they had gone in, or even what these doors led to. Therefore, I asked, careful to keep my voice down, “Guys, what do these doors go to?” “Those two,” whispered Rebecca, pointing to the two on my left, “are just storage rooms.” “That,” said Seth, gesturing to one on my right, “is an office.”< “And that,” said Emma in the same tone, “is a very boring lounge.” Alright. We had them. They were probably in the lounge. “What’s the layout?” “Ummmm...well, there’s a big couch, and a counter with a coffeepot. That’s about it.” “Nothing to hide behind, like, I don’t know, walls, anything?” She thought. “No. I don’t think so. Wait! There’s also a bathroom in the back corner.” I tried to come up with a way to surprise them, but nothing came to mind. A commotion, however, was heard on the other side of the door. We all leaned against it, straining to hear what was being said. Luckily, we caught the tail end of it. “...every time!” yelled one of the storm spirits. “Alright, look here,” said another menacingly, “Don’t get all high and mighty on me...” “High and mighty?!” yelled the first. “Gah. I don’t have time for you hooligans!” Just in time, we realized what was happening and flattened ourselves against the wall. The storm spirit whose name I still was unaware of burst out of the lounge. He slammed the door behind him, staring intently at what looked to be a phone. “Gods,” he said, swiping his finger across the surface, starting to walk down the hallway. “You think that they would be a little bit nicer.” He made it past Natalie without noticing anything. Seth, Rebecca, and I were on the other side of the door, watching, stunned. He almost made it past Emma, but when he was no more than five feet away from her flattened form, he paused, looking up. Before he could turn around, however, Emma drew her sword and stabbed him. Its bronze blade sliced through the middle of his back, and he disintegrated before our eyes. “Wow, that was easy.” “Yeah,” I said, maintaining a whisper; I hadn’t forgotten the three other spirits lurking behind a piece of wood. “Dang.” “But wait,” said Rebecca, “why did he turn into dust? I thought that they were, like, gods.” “They are,” I replied, “but sorta. More like spirits than anything else. Not fully gods, but not fully monsters. They’re really hard to kill.” “Yeah. Looks like you hit just the right spot, Emma,” complimented Natalie. She smiled. “Thanks.” “Right, but we still have three more to go,” I reminded. Their faces returned to a serious expression as they contemplated that. “Alright, well, I vote we just go in and sneak up on them.” “Wait. Just..go in?” asked Rebecca. “Yep. As I’ve said, or implied, I’m really combative today. We’ll just hope they don’t see us. It’ll be fine.” Rebecca accepted it. One thing I love about that girl: she gets me and just rolls with it. No one else objected. Seth looked excited as always; Natalie was like Seth; Emma looked nervous but determined. “Okay,” I whispered my hand on the door knob. “We’re just gonna sneak up on ‘em and start hacking.” I paused, took a breath, and adjusted my grip on my gleaming blade. Silently, I twisted the knob, feeling the mechanism slide. I pulled open the door, relieved in the fact that the remaining storm spirits were on the couch, their backs to us. I crouched, slinking inside, everyone else following. Once we were in, I closed the door, cautiously sliding the knob back in the door jam. The spirits were loud, roaring with laughter and discussion. Unnoticed, we snuck up on them. Soon, we were right behind them. I leaned against the back of the couch, glancing up, seeing the dangerous storm spirits no more than two feet away from me. I glanced at Natalie, who nodded. We gripped our swords tighter in our hands, all of us, ready for this. I got to my feet, still crouching, and tried to figure out a good spot to hit the spirit, hoping that maybe I would get lucky like Emma, but I was never lucky. I swung my blade at one, as did Natalie to another. Both of our gleaming blades passed through the spirits, causing no harm to them in any way. Their laughter, however, cut off. They whirled around, their eyes widening as the took in us five demigods. The one that I had just tried to vaporize, Joe, as I now saw, reached toward me, but I stepped back as to escape his cold hands. Natalie, however, managed to get another swipe at the storm spirit she had just attacked. She must have hit the right spot in just the right way, for he disintegrated into dust just after I was able to make out “Bob” on his clothes. We were now down to two storm spirits, Unnamed and Bob now long gone. Within an instant, a dark sword appeared in Fred’s hand while a spear materialized in Joe’s. Joe sent the tip at me, and I danced away, getting closer to my friends, wanting to make sure that I had back-up. Natalie did the same with Fred’s blade, joining us. Before we could start an attack of our own, a look passed between the two spirits, and a second later, we were being thrown back by an enormous gust of wind. Fred cackled, “What makes you think you can win? We’ve beaten you before, and that was a poor attempt.” His sword gleamed as he twirled it. “Make a last wish.” With that, he advanced, slowly, menacingly. “Seth, Rebecca, Emma, distract them,” I whispered to my friends, knowing that stealth wasn’t their strong point. “Natalie and I will get them by surprise.” Seth, true to form, leapt into action, and Emma followed. Rebecca hung back, firing arrows into their misty bodies. As soon as they started, I slid to the side, hiding from view behind a cabinet. Natalie did the same behind a trash can, her nose wrinkled in disgust at her position. Emma had taken on Fred while Seth chose Joe. Both were keeping their own, attacking ferociously, giving the spirits a run for their money. Emma seemed to dance around the fight, her swordsmanship combining with her dancing, confusing Fred with her unique style. Seth, on the other hand, was fighting in his style: attack. He was pressing Joe hard, just being a beast, gaining ground. Both were wary of the spirit’s tricks and weren’t allowing them to let out any gust of air because of the constant pressure. Rebecca was firing away, distracting each of them one second at a time even though her arrows flew right through, a tactic that was clearly annoying, if their faces when an arrow went though them was anything to judge by. Now that the spirits were fully engaged, Natalie and I started moving. I motioned to her, gesturing that I would take Joe. She nodded, heading for Fred. I stealthily snuck around, trying to get behind the spirits, as did Natalie. It was difficult, for everyone kept moving so much due to the fighting. As I was passing Fred to get to Joe, he saw me. His sword came flying at my side. Being crouched so low, I didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver. With the deadly blade coming ever closer to my left side, I leapt to my right, using a volleyball roll to get right back on my feet. We traded a few blows, but with both Emma and I pressing him, he couldn’t keep up. When he was distracted by Emma, I slid behind the couch, eager to get to Joe, for Natalie was in good position right now to get to Fred. I crawled to the other side and peered out, seeing Seth engaged in battle. Joe was wielding the spear with amazing skill, but Seth was wielding the sword with just as much, if not more. Seth was an amazing fighter; he was agile, strong, fast, and just plain good. As I slowly advanced towards Joe, I once again saw Seth’s skill. He was not only holding his own, but dominating the fight, however, even he couldn’t find the spot to make them disintegrate. I studied Joe, trying to figure out where to hit him. Meanwhile, Seth was still hacking at him. He didn’t acknowledge my presence; he didn’t have to. His tone clearly said, “C’mon. Do it! Just pick a spot and go.” Taking his advice, I slashed at a random point in the storm spirit’s back. Without knowing what had hit him, Joe disintegrated into dust. I looked over at Emma’s fight, which was close to being over. Fred had just noticed that Joe was gone. He just had time for a disbelieving glance before he too bursted into dust, Natalie’s sword having dealt the final blow. “Alright then,” I said, looking at the two piles. “On to Boreas.” Chapter 12 - Twist in the Plan “Any suggestions on how we’re going to take him down?” I asked, fresh out of ideas. “Got it! What if we use the golden net that Hephaestus made?” supplied Natalie. “I’m sure he still has it somewhere.” “Great! Anyone have a drachma?” I walked over to the sink and made a small rainbow from the sprayer. Using the drachma Rebecca had handed me, I threw it into the mist. “Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Hephaestus. In...whatever forge he’s in.” The water droplets shimmered, and a screen formed in the mist, showing the image of the god of forges busily hammering at some contraption of his. “Hephaestus,” I called softly, not wanting my voice to carry. Not receiving any type of recognition from the god, I tried again. “Hephaestus.” Nothing. He just kept tinkering away with his back to us. “Oh my gosh,” I said to no one in particular, “what’s...” “Hephaestus!!!” Natalie yelled. Jerking to a stop, he spun around to face the screen, raising the screwdriver to attack whoever had snuck up on him. Seeing the IM, he lowered it, a scowl appearing on his mangled face. “What do you demigods want?” he asked brusquely. “Umm, well, we’re trying to stop Boreas from using Biggby, the coffee shop,” I explained, “but we need a way to stop him, and he’s too powerful for us to fight on our own, so we needed something to help...” “Get to the point.” “Right, uh, we were thinking...” “We want to use your golden net,” cut in Seth. “Can’t help ya there then. I don’t have it.” “What do you mean you don’t have it? It’s your net!” I exclaimed. This was our only plan, all we had thought of. It had to work. Hephaestus’ face contorted in a moment of anger. “It’s an old creation. No use for it. It just sat in a pile of junk in the back of my forge. One day some snot-nosed demigod came and stole it. I didn’t really care for that piece of crap; I have much better now, so I didn’t waste my time chasing him. Let ‘im think he did something worthwhile for once in his miserable life. But if you want it so bad. Go and get it from him.” “How? Who is it? Where are they?” I asked, hoping it was someone that we’d be able to get it from quickly. “Slow down there. You Athena kids are so demanding,” he grumbled. “Just go talk to Sciron. Here, just leave already. I have work to do.” I started to protest, for he didn’t tell us where to find Sciron, but Hephaestus had turned back to his contraption. However, the Iris message started to get fuzzy, and a new image slowly misted onto the screen. Trying to interpret it, I leaned closer, only to have a strong wind pull me in, sucking me into nothing. For Chapters 4-9, go here Category:Chai Latte Category:Chapter Page